One of my pieces, Alley 97, will be featured in a group show at the Attleboro Arts Museum in Attleboro, Massachusetts, opening July 7. The opening reception is Wednesday, July 7th, 7-9pm; its free and open to the public. The exhibition, “Seeing Double”, was curated by Kristina Durocher and ends August 4.
Alley 97, NOW, was shot in Los Angeles in 2008 and involved frantic running around, when I ended up having to shoot alone in a rather shitty part of the city. In all my years shooting alleys at night, and recruiting people to watch my back, I have found no equal to the people of LA’s ability to renege on a commitment. Its normal for people to occasionally become unavailable at the last minute, and I accept that. A rough estimate would be that 10-20% of the time, someone backs out at the last minute. In LA, that ratio was cranked up to about 75% of the time! Alley 97 was my rude awakening to this reality, when I had gotten enthusiastic commitments from two unrelated people, only to find they both became unavailable as I was about to go shooting.
Affluence wrote a feature story on my work recently, saying I achieve eye-catching results that collectors of modern art will welcome. So don’t you forget that, next time you’re wondering what to put on that big blank wall!
Also, Nuvo (The Indianapolis entertainment weekly) reviewed my solo show at the Indianapolis Art Center. I got 4 stars ha, ha!
Indianapolis Art Center
Four stars
The kind of long exposure times that Chicago-based Xavier Nuez uses in his film photography leaves him exposed to danger as he travels to various cities in the U.S. and Canada trying to capture the beauty he sees in run-down urban environments.
Photographers like Nuez are something of an endangered species, not necessarily because they are taking outrageous risks, but because the film they use may no longer be in production next year—or next week, for that matter. (Consequently Nuez has a 10-year supply of his favorite film stashed in his freezer.) But in capturing the image "Alley no. 10 Compactor," which he shot in an industrial area of Eastside Indy at night, he was definitely taking a risk by unknowingly being in a gang-controlled area. Inevitably, he found himself surrounded by gang members. For the full story of how Nuez talked himself out of this situation. It's something of a miracle, all things considered, that Nuez walked away with this stunning image of a glowing red trash compactor against a blue-lit wall. Such vividly-colored images are achieved with the help of battery-powered lighting equipment and colored gels, in addition to the long—and sometimes dangerous—exposures. Through August 1; 317-255-2464; www.indplsartcenter.org.